Abstract Central banks now tend to attach greater importance to communication with the public than formerly was the case. Although the trend towards more transparency is justified by central bank accountability, it is less obvious that more central bank transparency is also beneficial from an economic point of view. It is also not clear what constitutes an optimal communication strategy. This introduction to the special issue on “Central bank transparency and central bank communication” reviews our current state of knowledge in this field and puts the contributions to this special issue in perspective.